Stocks Record Solid Gains
May 17, 2011
The All Share index jumped 66 points to 6771 while the Industrial index soared 85 points to 7943. The All Gold index, though, lost 4 to 1802. The consensus among local traders was that institutional investors were impressed by Wall Street's resilience Tuesday in the face of the U.S. attack on Iraq, and more importantly to some, predictions of higher U.S. interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 50 points early that session before recovering to end with a gain of 32 to 5648. Wall Street is expected to set the tone for the remainder of the week although some brokers are convinced that the institutional presence in the equity market won't be a one-day affair. Selective bargain-hunting by the South African funds managers and banks Wednesday saw daily volume climb to a robust 469 million rand, traders said, and also served to snatch control of the market away from futures arbitragers, who dominated the bourse in recent days. Anglo American Corp. set the tone for the bourse as market leader, rising 3.50 rand to 276.50 rand a share. However, South African Breweries bettered this performance with a gain of 3.75 rand to 124.75 rand. Liberty Life was another in the industrial sector to ride the buying wave, climbing 3.50 rand to 135.50 rand while steel-maker Iscor secured a seven-cent gain to 2.80 rand. The gold sector continued to struggle in barren dealings thanks to a gold price stubbornly refusing to budge from recent range-trading and a strengthening rand.
